We're moving here! Not really- just the blog. Check it out at counselorup.com. Don't worry, everything here will still be around, I'm just branching out a little! However, no more new posts will be available through cpescounselor.weebly.com/blog. Make sure to add Counselor Up to your feed reader to keep updated!
So excited to have my wonderful intern here to talk about our Switch It Up day! Hi! My name is Archana Sabesan and I am Rebecca’s counseling intern for this school year. I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by! In thinking back to all the experiences I’ve had at Cameron Park, I definitely feel prepared and excited to start this new journey of becoming a school counselor. Recently, we held a “Switch It Up” day (May 30) here at the school. When I was given the task to plan this school wide event, my first thoughts were, “Where do I even begin? I’ve never done something like this before; I have NO idea what to do!” My first course of action was to go on Google and research more about this day. Its original name is “Mix It Up Day” and it’s actually a nationwide event, launched by the campaign Teaching Tolerance. During lunch, students are to get out of their comfort zones a bit and sit with someone they don’t already know. We all know that kids tend to flock towards people they are comfortable with and avoid making friends. However, studies have shown that interactions between different groups can help to reduce prejudice and misconceptions, and in turn, promote acceptance. This day usually takes place sometime in the month of October, but schools are encouraged to plan it for any day, any time of the year. Rebecca and I had many brainstorming sessions, in which we talked about what exactly this day would look like, what the different steps are in planning it, what to call this day, etc. We decided that this would be something fun to do during recess, instead of lunch, and that the name, “Switch It Up,” had a nice little ring to it. Because there was literally no way we could fit any more lessons into our schedule, we really needed all the support we could get from the teachers! I provided all the teachers with a brief lesson plan (about 30 minutes or so) and asked them to share it with their students whenever it was most convenient for them. For kindergarten through 2nd grade, the lesson was mostly discussion starters about how someone gets to know others, what types of questions to ask each other, how to decide what to play during recess, etc. For 3rd through 5th grade, the students got to watch a video on YouTube called “Take a Seat – Make a Friend." It was about strangers who sit in a ball pit and talk about life’s big questions! The teachers, then, lead open discussion about the video and how it relates to our “Switch It Up” day. (The students & teachers loved this video!) I, also, found really neat partner-picking cards online and requested each teacher to let me know if they would want to use them. Rebecca and I tried to make our way around to the different classrooms during the lessons, 1) to help partner up the students with the cards and 2) to get the kids excited for this day! A few days before our “Switch It Up” day, I spoke with the gym teacher at my school and asked if I could borrow some equipment to keep out on the playground. I was able to gather up some hula-hoops, jump ropes, batons & sacks for relay races, basketballs, and rope for Tug Of War. I, also, set up a Photo Booth station where kids could take pictures with a colorful poster I made, with “Switch It Up” written on it. Finally…May 30th arrived!! I made a quick announcement in the morning, reminding everyone that today was the day! I had so many kids come up to me in the hallway, talking about how excited they were. It was awesome! Rebecca and I had a few classes to teach that morning, but other than that, we had cleared our day so we could be out and about during all the recess times. We each had a camera, as we had to divide and conquer between the lower and upper playgrounds. It was about 11:45 when the first group of students started rolling out. I was immediately busy, running around taking pictures and seeing what the kids were doing. There were so many pairs that were holding hands, laughing, and just having a great time. It made me so happy to see this! The weather forecast was predicting rain for the day, but nothing happened other than a few drops around noon. It actually ended up being perfect weather, as it wasn’t too hot or humid! When Rebecca and I finally made it to her office at the end of the day, we just plopped down in our chairs and were so happy to give our legs a break. Though it took a whole lot of work, the day ended up being very successful! One teacher even emailed us saying two students who were paired up in her class decided that they were going to play together again on Monday. I was very pleased with how everything turned out, but definitely could not have done it without Rebecca and all the support I received from the staff at Cameron Park! Thanks Archana for a great switch it up day! I'll close with one of my favorite pics from that day. This pair held hands for the entire recess :) I just discovered the best counselor game hack- Chutes and Ladders. First of all, this game was one of my absolute favorites ever so I still love to play. The thrill of the ladders! The defeat of the chutes! Anyway, I have recently been using the game as a great tool for managing angry or sad feelings. Each time we go down a chute, we say something that makes us angry/sad. Each ladder is a strategy that helps us to calm down. The kids love it, I love it - win! What game hacks do you use? I've seen the Jenga conversation starters, but I am way too much of a neat freak to write on my Jenga pieces. I might have a problem. Maybe I should go see the counselor. Haven't we all felt at some time that coming to school requires armor or at least a shield? Just me? I remember the anxiety and stress of school, the endless worries about friends and social status (spoiler alert- I was a total nerd), and the pressures of doing well. Let me tell you, my experience has nothing on what kids are facing today. We are beginning the descent into the end of the school year and have a big obstacle looming (looming!) over us. State testing. Our school usually does really well; our kids are pretty awesome and we all know that. However, the pressure is building from outside forces with teacher merit pay and mandatory summer school or even retention. The teachers are feeling it and the kids are feeling it. As we get older, we start to understand that whatever it takes to overcome obstacles comes from within. With that in mind, I am making Coat of Arms with our 3rd-5th graders as a confidence booster. I begin by going over an explanation of what a coat of arms is and its history. I even show them an example of the Atkins Coat of Arms and a few others. They think I'm a rock star to have my own crest. A coat of arms says "This is who we are and we are special." So why not make your very own? The kids have made some amazing examples. They were so into what they were doing, you could hear an audible groan when I announced time was almost up. The class whose coats of arms hang in the hallway outside my room was so bummed to not take them home immediately, I finally had to take volunteers. It was a great wrap up lesson for our year! Happy (almost) summer! PS - here's my powerpoint with explanations and a blank crest (source unknown, I've had it forever). Do you have a personal anthem? A song that gets you ready to face a challenge, feel proud of who you are, or helps you feel motivated? I recently met with a group of students for lunch bunch on the topic of "self confidence." We focused on the personal anthem. I introduced the topic by talking about a national anthem. What is the purpose of a national anthem? To share your pride in your country, to help you feel a part of a community, and to bring the nation together. I was pleasantly surprised with how much my students "got" this. In fact, it was so successful that I replaced my normal stress lesson plan for my academic groups with the personal anthem. Here are some personal anthems my students chose: Brave by Sara Bareillos (the video is also definitely worth checking out!) Happy by Pharrell Williams Let It Go with Indina Menzel First Time In Forever with Kristen Bell Hall of Fame by Will.I.Am (does include one curse word starting with an H) Roar by Katy Perry Best Day of My Life by American Authors Pompeii by Bastille Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams It was so much fun to listen to music and I think everyone left in a better mood. Enjoy!! Check one thing off the to-do list- I've been published!! Woop woop! You can check out my article on Academic Achievement Groups: "A Solid Grounding" in the ASCA School Counselor magazine or online if you're a member. Just picture me doing the happy dance. Everybody's working for the weekend (imagine me dancing around with earbuds in). Except, is that what we want for our kids? I hope that every student in my school will one day have a career that is interesting and fulfilling to them. In the third quarter, we learn about careers in K-2. So what have we been up to? In Kindergarten we have been playing career bingo and reading ebooks from our school library about careers. We also watch the Career Day song by the Bazillions. The kids love it! In first grade, we have been rocking the Common Core and reading realistic fiction stories about careers and using the text to answer questions about the education needed, job responsibilities, and tools. The kids have done a GREAT job and I am really proud of them. You can check out the handouts and career stories in my shop over on Teachers Pay Teachers. We are prepping for our Career Jeopardy show down. You can check out my career jeopardy also on Teachers Pay Teachers. In second grade, we are using the website Paws in Jobland to explore interesting careers and complete a group project to share with the class. I'm pretty excited about what we're doing with careers over here! I'll check back with more details as we get into our lessons. Happy working :)
While I have certainly implemented many mediation and conflict resolution interventions, I was looking for something that would teach new relationship skills and allow for real change. Enter the book club! My good friend, Angela Poovey, over at Life on the Fly, really introduced me to the book club concept and I love it.
To end the group, we used a technique that I picked up doing the Bullying Specialist professional development through ASCA. In this technique, I empowered each of the girls to use resources to research ways to handle a fictitious problem. In my district, we use google docs. I created a google doc with different bullying resources and assigned one to each student. Outside of group, they researched their resource and input ideas for how to handle our fictitious problem. We then discussed their resources and ideas in the group.
You can check out all the lesson plans here. I hope that you find it helpful! PS - Teachers LOVE book clubs because they incorporate reading skills and using resources to research a problem is so Common Core :) Have fun! Have you checked out the awesome book Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control by Lori Copeland? It's not exactly hot off the presses (copyright 1998), but it is a classic. The story is about Hunter who has ADHD and is often frustrated by how his brain works. He uses the idea of a remote control to help himself. This book is wonderful. The concept is wonderful. There a few things that are not so wonderful. First, the book is looooooooooong. I have marvelled at such a long book specifically designed for ADHD kids. Second, there are a lot of buttons on Hunter's remote control. To make things more manageable, I teach only 6 of the buttons. The book includes the story and activities for each of the remote buttons. Some of the activities are good but others, not so much. I spent a lot of time googling and looking for activities to go with each button and had a difficult time finding many. So I present to you, my dear counselor friends, 7 lesson plans designed for a small group. I am including a nice printable lesson plan here. I like to print on colored cardstock front and back and reuse over the years. Lesson 1: Read the story (skipping over any buttons you decide not to use). As Hunter adds buttons to his remote, students can draw buttons on their "remote." You can see some of our remotes in the picture above. Each Lesson 2-7 has the same basic format:
Lesson 2 Channel Changer: Listen to song about the Channel Changer Button. It's a little cheesy (sorry nice music therapy lady) but the kids really like it. Then illustrate a channel changer book using the song lyrics. Lesson 3 Pause: Color game (in the book) and "Move and Freeze" - I use the song from the Brain Boogie Boosters CD but you can find lots of great ones on youtube too. Research shows that practicing that "stop" action actually helps kids to learn impulse control. Lesson 4 Fast Forward: Play Connect Four with a twist. Take turns playing while covering the board with dark paper. It's hard to Fast Forward and make a plan if you can't see. My Hunter groups tend to be small so we just switch and play winner. If you have a larger group (more than 4), it might be best to borrow another Connect Four game. Once everyone has played with the board covered, we take the paper off and play regularly. While they are playing, I note when they Pause and Fast Forward to make a plan. Lesson 5 Rewind: Read famous failures from the Hunter book. Using Puppets, act out making mistakes scenarios and how to correct them. I wrote out some scenarios that I knew were relevant to my group on notecards and we drew cards. For some reason, drawing a card makes it much more fun! Lesson 6 Slow Motion: Jenga time! We play Jenga to practice slowing down and move with intention. We play two games and in between we do some calming imagery. Usually the second game goes much longer because everyone is calm! Make sure to take pictures of group members to prepare for the next lesson. Lesson 7 Way To Go: This is a good way to celebrate the last session of group! To prepare, I print pictures of each student. They can cut out their heads and glue to the page to be their super hero head. They then draw a super hero body and write four things that make them a super kid. This is a really fun group and I highly recommend the book. Let me know how it goes with your groups! Check out our awesome 2nd graders practicing the Calm It Down Song through second step. They are awesome! The steps to calming down: Stop. Name Your Feeling. Calm Down.
We have practiced many ways to be responsible for your angry feelings: deep breaths, positive self-talk, counting to 10, and more. The song will definitely worm it's way into your head! |